Ha Noi and Seoul, South Korea

(I am finishing this in Seattle on my NINE hour layover after my previous 40 hours in transit)

On my last day in Vietnam, I packed in the morning.  You all will be happy to hear that I left all of my stretched out t-shirts except the one I am wearing.  (Today, entering day three of this never ending flight home, a security agent mentioned I may want to zip up my fleece to 'keep the girls under wraps' so yea... these t-shirts have definitely failed the stress test).  I managed to keep it down to two checked bags and a very reasonable day pack as carry on.  It turns out I haven't bought that much but the clothes from Hoi An were space hogs.  

I had hours to kill on my last day in Ha Noi so I decided to walk to the Ho Chi Minh Complex.  This is where his mausoleum is but that building was closed so no pictures of dead revolutionaries today, sorry.   

HCM's mausoleum

Actually I arrived just as everything was closing (11:30) so I wandered around the grounds for an hour or so and then walked back to the History Museum (re-opened at 1). 

more cute kids posing

The Canadian Embassy was on the grounds

 There were also signs about how to live right, with good and bad examples of how your behaviour will affect you.  Here is my favourite

"If you waste time for travel, you will suffer from a disease that causes your inability to walk"
Seems a bit harsh to me

The History of War museum.  I'm not sure if there are so many war museums because 

1. they are still recovering psychologically from it, or 

2. because they happen to have so many abandoned machines, it is easy to display them or 

3. because there are so many American veterans visiting that there is a market for them.

There is an 'ancient citadel' there as well.   

Then back to the HCM Museum for the 2pm opening.  I was kind of tired already, long walk from the hotel so I did a quick tour around and didn't really read any of the display info.  It is quite a beautiful building, on the inside, the outside is not so pretty.   They mix artistic settings with artifacts. For example, they had war memoriabilia set into a giant lotus.  And the structure itself was very modern and stunning.  I'm sure the pictures will not do it justice.  Lots of marble and steel.  

The entrance to the HCM museum

Ho Chi Minh greets you as you enter

Here are some last images of Ha Noi from my last day

I had a quick Bahn Mi sandwich as I walked back to the hotel because I wanted to get out of there before the dinner rush.  So even though my flight wasn't until 11pm, I left the hotel just after 4 and still barely got a taxi through the hoards of people.

Ok, fair warning, this part of the post is another example of not-smart-Joanne.  Maybe not as dumb as Angkor Joanne but close.

I had to wait a couple of hours before my check in opened so I planted myself nearby and finished my hooker travel book.  So, then to keep myself occupied, I looked over my ticket printout.  I have had that printout for months.  And this was the first time I noticed that I had a 14 hour layover in Seoul.  14 HOURS!!  How had I missed this?  Fly in at 5:05 AM, fly out at 7:05 but PM.  Not 19:05 as tickets usually list.  But still, I was so worried about my 9 hours in Seattle and here was a worse layover that I completely missed.

So, I quickly figured out if I needed anything to enter South Korea.  No, no visa required.  Found a site listing things to do on a long layover, took some notes and a plan was formed. 

My flight from Ha Noi to Seoul was less than 5 hours so we landed a little after 3am my time, 6 am Seoul time.  I didn't get any sleep.  But I only had my daypack so I was ready to head into the city around 70km from the airport. Fortunately, for the Olympics they have upgraded their express trains.  

The lady at the tourist info desk gave me a tourist map and told me where to go based on my notes of neighbourhoods I wanted to visit.  It involved a transfer somewhere so I would have to take the 'all stops' train.  So, I went to the train ticket desk and the guy asked if I wanted an all stop or an express ticket to Seoul Station.  Before my brain had even registered the question, my mouth answered 'express please'.  Hmm, you may be surprised to learn that my mouth is not always working in my best interests.

Here is my trying to compare my tourist map to the online map I found.  This tourist map was literally the worst map ever and I am including oldy-timey maps where sea monsters ate you before you sailed off the edge of the world.

The sun came up while I was expressing into town.  This series from my upcoming one woman exhibit called "Sunrise from the Express Train to Seoul" coming to a gallery near you soon.

I arrived at Seoul Station (basically the main station) and headed out.  And almost immediately veered left instead of right.  The map was no help.  I walked and walked and could not find the city center.  I was hopelessly lost.  I even tried using the sun to navigate but after a couple of hours, I walked by a building I had walked by before and realized I had spent that whole time walking in a giant circle.  Stupid sun, not helpful.

That was it, I jumped in a taxi and had him take me to the station the lady at the tourist booth suggested in the first place.  (Stupid alert - I know you think it is already bad but it gets worse here).  In the cab, I was trying to figure out where I had gone based on landmarks were were passing.  The map didn't have street names (see, the worst) when I thought to myself, I wish this map was like other tourist maps I have used where they detail the main parts on the back.  (Yup, here it comes) At this point, I realized and turned over the map.  As you have already figured out but took me half day to figure out, the detail map was on the back.  In my defense, I had been awake 24 hours at that point (not a good defense but it might get me life instead of the chair).

So, getting past that, here are some pictures. 

Seoul Station

Fish market, it was so cold in Seoul the fish were frozen

The old meets the new

 I was really tired so I didn't take too many pictures.  I just wandered around, did a bit of shopping. I had managed to get through this entire trip without buying one bag! Lea would have been so proud of my but I ended up buying a bag here.  It isn't for me, I promise, unless it is, which it definitely is not!

Stopped for lunch.  Beef Bulgogi and giant dumplings (2 of which I took to go for dinner at the airport).

Ths was a lot of food

Then headed back toward the station, by the royal palace but I didn't go into.

This was just a trick of traffic lights
but the city wasn't nearly as traffic crazy as HCMC or Ha Noi

Seoul is a big, modern city

Back on the Express Train 

The subway map gives some indication of how major a city it is.

My last photo of Korea out the train window

After that, a couple of hours at the Inchon/Seoul airport, a 10 hour overnight flight to Seattle on which I barely slept despite not having slept for 36 hours a that point.  Arrived at Seattle, found a soft couch, used my jacket as a pillow and slept for two hours which is why this post is mostly coherent (or so it seems but I am still overtired so when I reread it later, I guess I will find out).

I am still two hours away from my flight to Victoria and Alisma has just informed me it is snowing pretty hard there.  If I can't get home, I am going to die.  In this airport, dead.   I better get back to my couch just in case.  I might as well die on a soft surface.

Northern Vietnam - Ha Long Bay & Ha Noi

My English speaking receptionist managed to find me a one day tour of Ha Long Bay.  I was hoping for a two day boat tour but then I wouldn't have time to go to Sapa which is at least a two day trip.  So, I booked the one day and as it turned out, I wasn't able to get a Sapa tour (Tet strikes again).  Zen.

Anyway, Ha Long Bay is beautiful.  Close to the mainland there are these towering limestone pillars (karsts), with little bays and caves scattered about.

Three hour bus to the dock.  Then we boarded our boat and immediately had lunch while we cruised to the good stuff.  Lunch was good.  Steamed Shrimp, Fried Salad rolls and fish cakes for appys, followed by octopus salad, chicken and rice and cabbage.  We all ate super fast so we could go out on deck and start taking pictures.

There are so many boats around the pillars that I don't think I have one photo that doesn't have at least one boat in it.  I decided it added to the scenery and shows scale.

Typical tourist boat

First view

Our first stop was at a huge cave.  History! According to our guide, it was discovered in 1993 by a guy chasing a monkey who ducked into a hole at the top.  In the history, this guy is a hero but I like to imagine the story from the other side, where that monkey was hated by everyone in his troop for wrecking the best monkey hidey-hole in the world.

Much like fireworks, caves don't work that well in pictures but here goes anyway.  The cave is named Ascending Dragon for a rock formation inside that looks like a dragon.  I took a picture but honestly, I can't figure out which one it is so just pretend you see a dragon in one of the following.

Monkey escape hatch

After the cave, we cruised around the karsts.  

These are a big draw apparently.  They are called the fighting cocks 

the one on the right does look a bit like a chicken, I suppose

This rock is on the 200K VND bill

Then we docked near a small bay and took small bamboo boats into the bay.  There were two caves that we entered.  Well, more like inner lakes inside karsts but with cavish openings.

Add caption

Bamboo Boats

Then back to the dock and the bus back to Ha Noi.

(Stop to online check in for my flight in less than 24 hours.  The neighbours were so loud all evening.  It sounded like they were having a family dinner/fight directly under the air vent in my room.  At midnight, they were just getting louder and more yelly and I couldn't take it anymore. I yelled at the vent as loud as I could to 'STOP YELLING AT EACH OTHER, IT'S MIDNIGHT'.  And miraculously, it worked.  Immediately, the tone shifted and then within a minute or two they all left.)

But I digress...

The last two days have just been exploring Ha Noi, eating, going to shops but not buying much.  Some more coffee and another little painting.  When I was on my flight from Hue to Ha Noi, the in flight magazine had a feature on some of the traditions of Vietnamese New Year (sadly, nothing about the fires) and they mentioned that every household buys folkart for their walls.  It is simple art that anybody could afford, with scenes of daily life.  They showed an example of a farm animal and I loved it but I hadn't seen anything similar previously.  Probably because I was in touristy areas.  But I found a little shop with all of the usual paintings.  But on a shelf stacked in the back, I found a pile of little paintings of farm animals.  I bought one, a pink bull on a purple background with a farmer wearing red pants.  Alas, no picture and it is already packed.  But here is the shop.

Here are a bunch of photos from around Ha Noi.

buying coffee beans

The red bridge on a normal day

venturing into a sketchy neighbourhood

I don't know what this was but that chili sauce was blazing!

Catholic Cathedral, I didn't go in

Last picture of the night, this is my street right outside of my hotel
it is packed, the restaurants extend into the street and the pedestrians take over.
I am genuinely worried that I won't be able to get a taxi down here
when I have to leave with all of my bags

And here is the next morning, same street, like no one was ever there

I almost lost my mind in this pottery shop
but I bought NOTHING!

In front of the Catholic church

Coffee store cat

Well, that's it for now.  I have today to kill and then I head home tonight at 11pm (local time).  But I have to pack up and have my bags out of my room so this will likely be the last post before I get home.   

See you at work on Monday.